White ant is another name for termites. Just as termites literally destroy the structure of a house from the inside, a person “white-anting” is acting from within to take an institution down. In the case of Rudd, the goal wasn’t to destroy the Labor party per se, but to take down the Gillard government by, for example, leaking details of what were supposed to be closed internal discussions to the press. And it had the effect of helping Labor lose the following election, giving Australia 9 more years of conservative rule.